IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/mgmchp/978-3-642-31371-4_3.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Software Usability in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Germany: An Empirical Study

In: Software for People

Author

Listed:
  • Florian Scheiber

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Dominika Wruk

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Achim Oberg

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Johannes Britsch

    (CAS Software AG)

  • Michael Woywode

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Alexander Maedche

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Felix Kahrau

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Hendrik Meth

    (University of Mannheim)

  • Dieter Wallach

    (University of Applied Sciences)

  • Marcus Plach

    (ERGOSIGN GmbH)

Abstract

Usability has become a competitive factor in the software industry. Specifically, the software industry in the United States has recognized this important factor and successfully leverages it for achieving competitive advantage. Compared to this fast development in the US, it seems questionable whether this view is also widespread among small and medium sized software producing and client companies in Germany and whether they direct sufficient attention to usability. This article presents the results of an empirical study exploring the status quo of the importance, the knowledge and the actual use of usability concepts among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany. Following an organizational field perspective, we investigate how interactions between actors in the software field influence the usability awareness as well as the knowledge and actual use of usability concepts. Based on the results of our study, we provide recommendations on how to increase awareness and maturity of software usability in SMEs in Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Scheiber & Dominika Wruk & Achim Oberg & Johannes Britsch & Michael Woywode & Alexander Maedche & Felix Kahrau & Hendrik Meth & Dieter Wallach & Marcus Plach, 2012. "Software Usability in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Germany: An Empirical Study," Management for Professionals, in: Alexander Maedche & Achim Botzenhardt & Ludwig Neer (ed.), Software for People, edition 127, pages 39-52, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:mgmchp:978-3-642-31371-4_3
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-31371-4_3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:mgmchp:978-3-642-31371-4_3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.